Virginia Fox
Acting
Biography
Virginia Fox was born in Wheeling, West Virginia (though her grave erroneously lists Charleston, W.Va. as her place of birth), the daughter of Marie (née Oglseby) and Frederick Fox. While on vacation from boarding school, Fox traveled to visit a friend in Los Angeles. The two made a casual stop by the studio of Mack Sennett, where she was hired on the spot and made a bathing beauty in the studio's films. Fox went on to star as leading lady in many of the early films of Buster Keaton, including 1920's highly-regarded "Neighbors". In 1924 she married film producer Darryl F. Zanuck, with whom she had three children, Darrylin (b. 1931), Susan Marie (1935–1980), and Richard Darryl (1934–2012). Fox retired from acting, but was known as a behind-the-scenes influence on her husband's business decisions. The couple separated in 1956 over the studio mogul's affairs with other women, though they were never legally divorced; but according to Zanuck biographers, she cared for him at their home from the time he became mentally incapacitated in the early 1970s until his death in 1979. She was buried near Darryl Zanuck at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles. Despite some Internet accounts to the contrary, Virginia Fox was not related to William Fox, whose name is preserved in the company 20th Century Fox, which Darryl Zanuck created and led for decades. William Fox founded Fox Studios, but had lost control of it by the time Zanuck acquired it and merged it into his own empire.
Known For
The Romeo and Juliet story played out in a tenement neighborhood with Buster and Virginia's families hating each other over the fence separating their buildings.
Neighbors
A butterfly collector unwittingly wanders into an Indian encampment while chasing a butterfly, but the tribe has resolved to kill the first white man who enters their encampment because white oil tycoons are trying to force them from their land.
The Paleface
A series of misadventures occur when Buster is mistaken for a criminal on the lam.
The Goat
A documentary looking at the life and career of film director Frank Capra. Hosted by Ron Howard.
Frank Capra's American Dream
Buster clowns around in a blacksmith's shop until he and the smithy get in a fight which sends the smithy to jail. Buster helps several customers with horses, then destroys a Rolls Royce while fixing the car parked next to it.
The Blacksmith
A bank teller becomes involved with a hold-up, counterfeiters and a theatrical troupe posing as spooks in a haunted house.
The Haunted House
Upon waking from the dream of a theater peopled entirely by numerous Buster Keatons, a lowly stage hand causes havoc everywhere he works.
The Play House
Buster Keaton gets involved in a series of misunderstandings involving a horse and cart. Eventually he infuriates every cop in the city when he accidentally interrupts a police parade.
Cops
The day starts off as any normal day on Roach's farm, where Teddy, the farmhouse dog, is doing more productive work than everyone else combined. But the day changes when Roach's farmhand sees an opportunity to be the knight in shining armor to Louise, Roach's daughter, who he wants to marry.
Down on the Farm
A dancing instructor gets involved with a newly rich family.
Don't Weaken!
A down on his luck young man makes several attempts at committing suicide but fails them too. He then finds himself becoming more confident through a series of petty adventures, to such an extent that this becomes his undoing.
Hard Luck
In an attempt to forget his lost sweetheart, Buster takes a long trip at the sea when he's caught by pirates.
The Love Nest
Botany major Buster mistakenly graduates in electrical engineering and is hired to wire a new home.
The Electric House
A bored society girl cuts a hundred dollar bill in half, writes a message on one half for whoever finds it and throws it out the window of her apartment. The person who finds it turns out to be the driver of a coal truck. So she decides to give him a complete makeover in order to make him presentable to her society friends.
The Cave Man
The search is on for a bank robber's hidden stash in a house they all say is haunted.
Itching Palms
Ben Turpin's rival marries his college sweetheart played by Phyllis Haver.
Married Life
This short was a promo piece for Mack Sennett's Yankee Doodle in Berlin
Why Beaches Are Popular
A young married couple appears before a judge to get a divorce. The wife shows the judge some pictures of her husband with his arms around another woman, as "proof" that he was cheating on her. The husband, for his part, claims that he was just innocently helping the woman and that he was being blackmailed by the photographer who took the picture.